Balance boards have been used for exercise and amusement. The main feature of a balance board is a rigid platform mounted atop of a rounded base. A person standing on top of a balance board can manipulate the board by rotating and moving his ankles, thereby causing the board to tilt toward the floor. U.S. Pat. No. 3,024,021 discloses a basic balance board.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,605,224 discloses a balance board incorporating a rotatable arm that extends outwardly past the platform. The rotatable arm swings around the balance board in either a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction according to the way that the platform is tilted toward the floor. The disclosed object of using the rotatable arm is for the user to keep the arm turning while maintaining bodily balance.
G.B. Patent 2,144,646A discloses a balance board having a series of interengaging grooves in the center of the face of the platform and a ball for manipulating through the grooves. The foot placement positions are around the perimeter of the platform so that the interengaging grooves are between the user's feet. To use the balance board, the user stands on the board with his feet positioned on two sides of the maze of grooves and manipulates the ball through the grooves by tilting the board via foot and ankle motion. Since interengaging grooves must necessarily be located between the foot positions area, the ankle and knee motion required for manipulation of the ball through the grooves is a relatively small range of motion.
The known balance boards are deficient for use in proprioceptive muscle training. None of the existing boards is specifically designed to aid the user in gaining lower body muscle strength and control for both small and large motions. The balance board of the present invention is beneficial over the existing balance boards in that it allows the user to manipulate a moving object using both small and large muscle movements of the lower extremity(s). This is accomplished by incorporating dynamic variable resistance means as an integral part of the balance board.